Re: CHAT: Conlang and Writers

Quoth Mathew Willoughby:
> I'm still going to market my material, but I'm don't have any
> great expectations.  I'm free to self publish <gasp> on the web.
> Given that The Argo is so long and it is my first novel I'm considering
> just "giving" it away to the public and then focusing on the material
> that I think is more marketable (i.e., my other novel and my short
> stories).
That would be unbelievably cool.  Let me suggest that you still
copyright it, but put conditions on its distribution (i.e. that your
name has to stay on it).  In the techie computer world, this is known as
"copylefting"....  It's the basis of the free software and open source
movements, and I for one would _love_ to see it extended to the fiction
markets.

> Besides, there are a lot of things that a writer can do in HTML that
> we can't on paper.  It's so much more convenient to have words from
> conlangs linked to a glossary (instead of having to flip back and
> forth on paper).  It's kinder to trees to publish electronically (every time
> I send out a MS I suffer pangs of guilt, and the publishing industry
> reacts violently against anything that minimized the wasting of paper!
> Their lives *would* be easier if they took electronic submissions
> but they're so archaic.) and an electronic format encourages more
> intimacy between reader and writer.
Indeed!  The possibilities are endless.  Consider this a word of
encouragement....

--
-=-Don Blaheta-=-=-dpb@cs.brown.edu-=-=-<http://www.cs.brown.edu/~dpb/>-=-
An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.